Fallot repair in adult patients over 3 decades: Our experience

Introduction: We define "Fallot situation" as the existence of significant ventricular septal defect and right ventricular outflow obstruction. Survival into adulthood is extremely rare without complete surgical repair. We present our experience operating these adults. Methods: We consider complete surgical repair in Fallot adult patients if they have pulmonary arteries with adequate size. Retrospective study: 45 Fallot patients operated from 1993 to 2022 in our adult congenital heart unit. Statistical analysis: SPSS (R) 20.0. Results: Mean age: 37 +/- 13 years, 53% male, 18% prior palliation. Principal diagnosis: double chamber right ventricle + ventricular septal defect (60%), tetralogy of Fallot (27%). NYHA functional class: I 31%, II 38%, III 31%. Arrhythmia 20%. Mean hematocrit: 48 +/- 10%. Associated left pulmonary artery agenesis 7%, severe aortic regurgitation 7%. Main surgical indication was pulmonary stenosis 98%. Additional tests showed high gradients between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery, and good biventricular function. Surgeries were performed by median sternotomy with cardiopulmonary bypass, moderate hypothermia and aortic clamp. Ventricular septal defect was closed through the right atrium (71%). Reconstruction of the right ventricle outflow tract was done by preserving the pulmonary valve (80%), interposing bioprosthesis (16%), and using transannular patch (4%). Associated surgery (18%): tricuspid (one), aortic (6), anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (one). Inhospital mortality: one patient (2,2%). Mean follow-up: 8.9 +/- 7.6 years. Late mortality: 2 patients (4.5%). Reintervention: 7 patients (15%) because of residual lesions (3 percutaneous, 5 surgical). Nowadays, functional class: I 68%, II 28%, III 4%; sinus rhythm 83%. Conclusions: Complete surgical repair in adulthood of Fallot patients achieves clinical improvement by eliminating the cyanosis, closing intracardiac shunts, and decreasing right ventricular pressure overload. Our results are excellentwith good rates of pulmonary annulus preservation, low mortality and acceptable reintervention rate in the follow up. (c) 2022 Sociedad Espanola de Cirugia Cardiovascular y Endovascular. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).